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CINCINNATI CONVENTION, 



OCTOBER 18, 1864 



, x^^i, 



the OE,c3-^nsrizA.Tio^r op :jl peace ^^ldbtit; 

UPON 

STATE-RIGHTS, ' JEFFERSONIAN, DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES 

AND FOE THE 

PROMOTION OF PEACE AND INDEPENDENT NOMINATIONS 

FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

OF THE UNITED STATES. 



FIRST DAY— October 18, 1864. 

The Peace Convention met at the Lecture 
Room in the Catholic Institute, October 18, at 
10 o'clock. About fifty delegate? were pre- 
sent. A temporary organization was effected 
by appointing Hon. Win. M. Corry, Chairman, 
and John Cahill, Secretary. 

On motion of Hon. Alexander Long, of Ohio, 
a Committee of three was appointed by the 
Chair, on permanent organization, consisting 
of Oliver Brown, Esq., Geo. F. Hoeffer, Esq., 
and B. P. Churchill, Esq. 

On motion of Hon. James W. Singleton, of 
Illinois, a Committee of seven was appointed 
by the Chair, on resolutions and address, con- 
sisting of Hon. J. W. Singleton, of Illinois, 
I. J. Miller, Esq., of Ohio, Josiah Snow, Esq. ( 
«f Illinois, Hon. Alex. Long, of Ohio, Hon. 
Lafe Devlin, of Indiana, Hon. Wm. Cornell 
Jewett, of Pennsylvania, and by action of the 
Convention, Hon. Wm. M. Corry, of Ohio. 

On motion of Hon. Wm. Cornell Jewett, — 
That in view of the important responsibility 
upon the Convention to make independent 
nominations, for the purpose of organizing a 
Peace party upon sound State-Rights, Demo- 
cratic principles, be it 

Retolced, That a Committee of three he appointed to 
report to thia Convention suitable candidates for Tresi- 
lent and Vice-President of the United States. 

Pending thia motion, which was discussed 



at length, the Convention adjourned until 2 
P.M. 

Upon the reassembling of the Convention 
at 2 P. M., the Committee on organization re- 
ported for permanent officers, Hon. Wm. M. 
Corry, Chairman, and S. A. Miller, and Daniel 
S. Dana, Secretaries. 

The discussion on the subject of nominations 
was then resumed, pending which a motion to 
adjourn until 9 o'clock, A. M., the 19th inst., 
was carried for the purpose of giving the Com- 
mittee on resolutions and principles time to 
report. 

SECOND DAY— October 19, 1864. 

Pursuant to adjournment, the Peace Con- 
vention assembled at the Catholic Institute at 
9 A. M. 

By unanimous consent, action upon the reso- 
lutions for a Committee on Candidates for 
Ti-esident and Vice-President, was postponed 
for the purpose of hearing the report of Com- 
mittee on resolutions. 

The resolutions of the Committee were re? 
ceived and read. 

Action was then taken section by section 
and they were all passed. 

On motion of General Singleton it was 

Resolved, That wo approve and indorse the action anl 
resolutions' of the Democracy of Franklin county, S?w 
Tork, on the 11th of October, 1804, as published in tliq 
Franklin Gazette of the 15th inst., and pledge to soiJ 
DetnocrucT our h?arty eo-ooarariou. Carried. 

\ 



.C.65. 



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On motion of Hon. Amos Green, of Illinois, 

it was 

Resolved, That for the purpose of perfecting this or- 
ganization a Committee to consist of two members from 
each State be appointed as an Executive Committee, and 
that the President of this Convention notify the gentle- 
men so appointed, and request an acceptance upon their 
part of such appointment. Carried. 

Convention adjourned to 7 P. M. 

EVENING SESSION, Oct. 19, 1864. 

Convention re-assembled at 7 P. M. The 
Committee on resolutions reported an address, 
■which was received and adopted. The Con- 
vention then discussed the propriety of nomi- 
nations under the resolution introduced by 
Hon. W. C. Jewett. The resolution was adopt- 
ed and a Committee appointed consisting of 
Hon. W. C. Jewett, Hon. J. W. Singleton and 
Lafe Devlin, Esq. 

The Chairman of the Committee reported 
that they were unanimous in favor of Hon. 
Alex. Long, for President and unable to pro- 
cure his assent or to harmonise upon another 
candidate, but asked for further time to report. 

This elicited a debate upon the propriety of 
dispensing with nominations, and presenting 
to the people the resolutions and address, with 
the proceedings of the Convention, as the basis 
of an organization of the peace party. 

Hon. James W. Singleton, Mr. I. J. Miller, 
Mr. Josiah Snow, Mr. Lafe Devlin, Hon. Alex- 
ander Long, Hon. William Cornell Jewett, Hon. 
W. M. Cony, Committee on resolutions and ad- 
dress, reported the following resolutions, com- 
plete, as adopted by the Convention. 

PREAMBLE. 

Whereas, The Chicago Convention has distinctly repu- 
diated Democratic principles, and nominated General 
McClellan, who has responded to the platform by his war 
record, but the Peace and State Rights Democracy scout- 
ing the whole proceedings, have no idea of surrendering 
their doctrines ; Therefore, this Convention of the party 
is determined to place our cause on its principles, so as to 
keep before the people, the great question of Peace or 
War, and the vital matter of State Sovereignty, Which is 
tho ultimate and omnipotent power of the federal system 
and our only protection for liberty within the United 
States. 

That as our fathers did, so do wo stand by the first 
Kentucky Resolutions of 17i)H, as written by Thomas Jef- 
'i moii, which was the doctrine of the party for sixty-five 
years, until rejected at Chicago. It saved the party of 
that day from the Hamc consolidation which is now im- 
pending over us, and which resolution is in these words : 

1 Resolved, That tho several States composing the 
United States, aro not united on the principle of unlim- 
ited submission to their General Government; but that 
by a compact, under the style and title of a Constitution 
for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they 
constituted a General Government for special purposes — 
delegated to tho Government certain definite powers, re- 
serving each State to itself, tho residuary mass of right 
to thoir Belf-goverumeut ; and that whenever the General 



Government assumes nndelegated power, its acts are cn» 
authoritative, void, and of no force ; that to this compact 
each State acceded as a State, and is an iutegral party, its 
co-States formiug, as to itself, the other party ; that the 
Government created by this compact Jwas not made the 
exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers dele- 
gated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, 
and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers: but 
that, as in all other cases of compact among powers hav- 
ing no common judge, each party has an equal right to 
judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and 
measure of redress. 

2. Resolved, That as Jefferson made the rugged issne of 
doctrine with Adams, so must we make it with the Fede- 
ral Administration, if we would resist effectually the 
infinitely greater dangers which surround us. We do, 
consequently, declare the wak wholly unconstitutional, 
and on that ground we hold it should be stopped. If a 
majority of the copartnership-States can retain a member 
by force, they may expel one by force, which has not yet 
been pretended by anybody. The Federal Agency, at 
Washington, backed up by a majority of the StateB in 
Congress, without right, in the vain attempt to subjugate 
the minority of the States, is destroying their liberty, 
and crushing the federal system to atoms by thus attack- 
ing the Constitution. The Administration, and that 
majority, are the real enemies of the Union, which can 
not, and ought not to exist after its conditions are de- 
stroyed. The Chicago Platform, and General McClellan 
and his war-record letter, which he has laid over it, 
must all be repudiated by Democrats for the same reason. 
If we admit that tho war is constitutional, we must not 
murmur at the monstrous abuses which attend it, for 
they all naturally grow out of the original atrocity. 

The evils of paper money, of protective tariff, of the 
public debt; the military draft; the military governors; 
the arbitrary arrest ; the provost marshals ; the fifteen 
bastiles : the drum-head courts-martial; the bayonet 
elections ; the padlocked lips ; the fettered press ; the 
wholesale confiscation ; the constructive treason ; our 
immense armies and navies, are mere incidents of the war 
itself, and so are President Lincoln's futile proclamations 
of slave emancipation, and his general amnesties. Half 
truths and narrow issues, have been the bane of Democra- 
cy for many years, and they have so contracted the minds 
and hearts of Democrats that all sense of justice, and all 
knowledge of constitutional law which sat there so long 
enthroned, have departed, and left us an easy prey to the 
violence of President Lincoln's Administration, and to 
corrupt managers of our own party in State and National 
Conventions. 

3. Resolved. That wo are directly opposed to all schemes 
of abolition and consolidation, and we not only adopt 
Jefferson's first Keutucky Resolution as our political 
creed — every word of it— but we declare that the time has 
come, by agitation, organization and combination, to put 
it in practice. The Abolitionists and consolidationists, 
whether they call themselves Republicans or Democrats, 
have a constitutional aversion to it, which proves, if 
proof were wanting, that it should be our remedy for the 
evils of the country, our plan for making the Federal 
Constitution, instead of personal ambition, vengeance, 
ignorance or audacity, the measure of Federal powers 
over the States and the people. 

4. Resolved, That the enormous and accumulating pnb- 
lic debt is coming down like an avalanche, to bury our 
property with our liberties, and to make the lives of 
millions of poor men, women ami children an intolerable 
burthen. The time has come to sound the alarm to all 
producers, the mechanics and laborers, but especially the 
farmers. Agriculture is the employment of three-fourths 
of the American people, and by far the most important 
of all others; the characters of those engaged in it con- 
form entirely to free institutions, and likewise to light 
taxes, peace measures, peace pclicy, and peace establish* 
rneiits, responsible rulers and strict construction of the 
Constitution. Self-], reservation for them, requires a 
Peace and State-rights Platform, and Peace and State- 
rights candidates, but, as indispensable to those, an im- 
mediate separation of the federal from the financial 
power, by the election of a President who will have jus- 
tice done to all pursuits and sections in respect of the 
public debt. Five billions have already been spent for 
prosecution of the war, and some of it is funded and non- 
taxable, much of it is still to be funded, and the struggle 
in Congress will be to exempt the most luxurious and 



s 



idle means of living from taxation altogether, while the 
rich man's field is fattened by the sweat of the poor inau's 
hrow. Laud and tabor are thns overcharged with public 
expenses. Much of the debt was incurred in paper money 
<it two for one, so that it will double in eight years ; and 
all the special legislation it asks of Congress will be ap- 
proved by Lincoln or McClellan. The result will surely 
be to deliver over the agricultural States to bondage, and 
their people to serfdom, even changing the titles in fee 
simple to leaseholds, containing covenants for rendering 
an annual yield to ttie Government of every third bushel 
at grain, and every third stack in the field, and every 
third animal of the increase of the herds and flocks, to 
pay public officers and public creditors. 

5. Resolved, That the universal interests of the people 
of all the States require that the Democracy should abso- 
lutely deny the fanatical charges of Abolitionists against 
negro slavery and slave-holders , and that for the welfare 
of our own laborers, as well as the cause of truth, we de- 
clare that negro slavery among the mingled millions of 
Southern whites and blacks is the only possible condition 
of prosperous society. The slave-holder is wise and just 
in his organization of his thought and labor, for tho 
presence of his helpless slaves compels him to set tasks 
for them, and to require obedience from a childish and-in- 
ferior race, that must be subsisted ; but have not the 
laculty of seif-preBervatioii in contact with their supe- 
riors. 

That the Democracy should also denounce and deride 
the protective tariff system, by which New England 
fleeces all tho other sections ; and the kindred imposition 
of papor money, issued in contempt of the Constitution 
by the Treasury and by private banks on the basis of the 
public stocks, which is another disastrous monopoly of 
capital overlabor; but above all, the forcible conscrip- 
tion of the State militia, by millions, for war on the 
South; all which unconstitutional, demoralizing, and 
degrading measures have aggravated, ten-fold, the con- 
summate wickedness and folly of the attempt at subjuga- 
tion of the seceded States. 

Resolved, That in presenting to the people these reso- 
lutions and principles, we do appeal to the Almighty for 
the rectitude of our purposes and the purity of our mo- 
tives, and do proclaim that our reliance for sttccess is 
upon God. 

Resolved, That utterly repudiating all selfish, partisan 
and factious views; convened to promote the peace and 
welfare of tho Dniled States of America; deeming the 
people of the Confederate States brothers in blood, and 
as an indispensable means to perpetuate State rights and 
free institutions, we should make all possible efforts to 
join them in a mutual policy of unconditional negotiation 
for the attainment of peace, and that in view of the peril 
of our institutions, the people should sanction this course. 

Carried. 

At 9 P. M., the discussion was resumed upon 
the report of the Committee on Nominations, 
that they had been unable to harmonize on can- 
didates for President and Vice-President of the 
United States, and asked for further time. The 
argument was participated in by Hon. Alex. 
Long, of Ohio, Hon. \V. M. Corry, of Ohio, Hon. 
James W. Singleton, of Illinois, Hon. W. C. 
Jewett, Hon. Lafe Devlin, of Indiana, Mr. Miller, 
« Mr. Thomas, Mr. Dana, Mr. YV. M. Peters, and 
others. 

Hon. Alexander Long, of Ohio, addressed the 
Convention at length, explaining his position, 
and his desire to harmonize upon a platform, un- 
der strict Democratic principles, on the basis of a 
peace party. He said he desired the indulgence 
of the Convention for a few moments. 

He had declined to unite in an independent 
movement at Chicago, immediately after the 
nomination -of General McClellan, upon the 
ground that having remained in the Convention 
and participated in its deliberations, much as 



he was opposed, both to the platform and nom- 
inee, he considered himself bound by its, action. 
The letter of acceptance (so called) of Gen- 
eral McClellan, repudiating the platform and 
proclaiming one of his own, by which he pro- 
posed to commit the Democratic party, not only 
to his war policy, but also to his infamous 
record, had absolved, not only him, but the 
whole Democratic party, from any obligation to 
his support. Hence he had favored an indepen- 
dent nomination at Columbus, upon true demo- 
cratic principles, and had in like manner co- 
operated with the advocates of a nomination in 
this convention. But while he fully appreciated 
the high compliment proposed to be conferred 
upan him; willing as he was to make almost any 
sacrifice in the cause of peace and for the promo- 
tion of State Rights and the security of personal 
liberty, he felt justified in declining the compli- 
ment, and he had resisted, during the past two 
days, the most urgent and persistent appeals of 
his friends to accept a nomination. He did not 
believe that any representative man could be 
found, at this late day, who would be willing to 
accept a nomination. The Convention had with, 
perfect unanimity adopted a platform of prin- 
ciples, and an address to the people. He be- 
lieved they had, accomplished all that could be 
done until after the election, and he was, there- 
fore, in favor of discharging the committee, and 
adjourning the Convention, sine die. 

Hon. W. M. Corry called Hon. Jas. W. 
Singleton to the chair, and in a speech of 
great force and power, opposed the views as 
expressed by the honorable gentlemen from 
Ohio, and favoring a nomination. Mr. Corry 
said he was a determined, frank and earnest 
man. He had taken part in the deliberations 
of this body with pride, but he was not oon- 
tent with the proposed conclusion of the Com- 
mittee. The nomination of peace and State- 
rights candidates was worth more than all be- 
sides as a legitimate and powerful means to 
secure the ultimate and complete success of 
the objects of the Convention. He maintained 
that it was the duty of all the subscribers to 
the organic law of the Convention, to make 
such nominations. If they were foregone, the 
the exertions we had so bravely made to re- 
construct American liberty upon the time- 
honored principles of Jefferson, were fruitless. 
1$; He urged at length the great advantages to 
the country to be" derived from the bold, sound 
and independent principles set forth in the 
resolutions. The opportunity should now be 
given to the sincere Peace and State Rights 
men of the country to rally around an irre- 
sistable doctrine, through our nomination. He 
hoped the discordant element in the Conven- 
tion which endeavored to defeat the earnest 
and pure purposes of himself and other like- 
thinking delegates, would not prevail. We 
were all deeply interested in the organization 
of the opposition to the Republican party, by 
putting our own representative men in the 



field at once; not with any hope of election; 
without much expectation of general support, 
in consequence of the lateness of the hour, 
but to send a thrill of delight through the 
despondent bosoms of Democrats, whose lead- 
ers at Chicago had abandoned the cause of 
peace and State rights, to the corrupt advo- 
cates of war and consolidation. 

It would do more ; it would prevent these 
name false leaders from soon again betraying 
the party and the country. We ought now to 
designate our standard-bearer by a unanimous 
vote of confidence, so that after the approach- 
ing defeat of the Democratic party, he could 
push back from the leadership, the old and 
vile betrayers of our true men and principles ; 
otherwise, he expected the party to be victimi- 
sed for the hundredth time by the same men 
who had led them so often to defeat ; never to 
victory: for even success with them cost us as 
much as the triumphs of Pyhrrus. Let us, to- 
night, seize the future government of the party, 
with a view to the restoration of a cheap, 
Bimple and responsible federal system for the 
United States, no matter what became of the 
is%ue of this terrible war. The time had arriv- 
ed to choose our leaders and he wanted it done. 
He gave to it his heart and hand. 

Mr. Corry was followed by General Single- 
ton, who, in an able, forcible and earnest sup- 
port of the views, as expressed by Mr. Long, 
said no man was more earnest in his desire for 
a nomination of some man whose principles 
and character would be in harnmny with the 
platform we have just adopt ed-^-he would not 
have attended the Convention if he had sup- 
posed, before leaving home, that such a result. 
as is now inevitable, at all probable — but the 
distinguished and honorable gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Long) to whom all eyes had been 
directed, having been tendered and declined 
a nomination, for motives and reasons which, 
if not entirely satisfactory to all of his friends 
present, are at least highly creditable to the 
gentleman himself — we are driven to the ne- 
cessity of canvassing the character and opin- 
ions of others not present, and to secure their 
consent, before we, can accomplish the much- 
desired and important result. In view of the 
fact that a majority present are unwilling to 
protract the session beyond to-night, and the 
utter impossibility of acting understandingly 
to-night, and in consideration that great good 
has already been accomplish^!, our happy and 
harmonious results should not be tarnished by 
hasty and inconsiderate action in making a 
nomination of persons whose opinions and 
wishes can not be consulted to-night. I am 
ready to acquiece in the necessity of tempora- 
rily foregoing such nominations, with a view 
to further consultation with absent friends, 
and a future meeting for such purpose after 
M' - Lincoln shall have been re-elected. 

I therefore move that this convention do 
now adjourn sine die 



Hon. W. C. Jcwett followed General Sin- 
gleton in an impressive appeal in opposition 
to Mr. Long and General Singleton, and iu 
support of the chair, favoring nominations. 
He stated the impossibility of his harmon- 
izing with the Committee, in commending 
that the Convention adjourn without nom- 
inating. He admitted the difficulty of ob- 
taining representative men and leading em- 
inent advocates of true Democratic prin- 
ciples, independent of the difficulty that 
many who would support the action of this 
Convention were just pledged to support Gen'l 
McClellan. He believed, however, if time was 
given for telegraphs, suitable nominations 
could be made. He expressed his sincere and 
earnest desire that, for the cause of liberty, 
peace and the representation of a principle, 
that a nomination should be made. He deemed 
a nomination indispensable, not for immediate 
victory, but as a standard around which the 
now smothered peace sentiment and Jeffer- 
sonian principles could gather for ultimate 
success. General McClellan had deserted, in 
his letter of acceptance, not only the time- 
honored principles of our institutions, but 
had repudiated the very power who had given 
him the nomination at Chicago — for he was 
pledged to a war platform. He conld not, 
therefore, from principle, support General Mc- 
Clellan, nor could he justify that portion of the 
peace party who now allow themselves to be led 
by a man who had been false to them, by not 
refusing the nomination, without an indorse- 
ment of their platform for peace ; and when 
not indorsed, in their not making independent 
nominations. He rejoiced in the success of 
the Convention, through their declaration of 
principles, while he regretted the disposition 
now in the majority to postpone nominations. 

He, in conclusion, desired to proclaim his 
opposition to the proposed action of this body 
to adjourn sine die to defeat nominations. He 
said: "I do protest against it in the name of 
humanity, in the name of liberty, in the name 
of "God, from its fatal consequence, to Repub- 
lican liberty." 

The discussion was continued until after 
midnight, resulting in the success of a motion 
to adjourn, sine die, postponing further action 
upon nominations. * 

THE ADDRESS. 

Mr. Singleton from the Committee on reso- 
lutions, platform, and address, submitted th» 
following, which,was unanimously adopted ; 

The Chicago Convention were a body'of men 
professing to represent the great principles of 
American Democracy. There could be no dif- 
ference of opinion as to what those principles 
were. They had been stamped upon every 
Democratic platform from the organization of 
the party to the moment of its fatal dissolution. 
They had been borne upon the breath of every 
Democratic statesman from Jefferson down. 



They had been proclaimed for near three- 
quarters of a century by the merest tyros is 
politics, from every stand and stump in our 
land. 

Hostility to the existing war, growing out 
of a political education thus obtained, and utter 
abhorrence of fraternal strife, was the pre- 
dominating feeling of the Democratic masses. 
The resolutions of 1798-9, prepared by Jeffer- 
son and Madison, were cherished by them as 
the organic law of their party. They con- 
demned alike the war, its measures, its evils, its 
excesses, and its advocates. 

The masses without, and the delegates within 
the Convention clamored for peace, denied the 
power of the federal government to coerce a 
sovereign State and continue a war of extermi- 
nation against its people. No Democratic 
speaker in or out of ihe Convention dared to 
advocate a continuance of the war under any 
leadership or pretense whatever. And yet the 
result of its deliberations, is a war candidate 
and a war platform. Deeds, and not profes- 
sions, are the mirror reflecting political truth ; 
and by applying this test to the Chicago Con- 
vention, we shall be able to understand the 
principles which lie at the bottom of the poli- 
tical system represented by Gen. McClellan. 

The Chicago Convention assembled after both 
Lincoln and Fremont had been nominated 
upon consolidation and abolition platforms 
as war candidates, pledged to subjugate the 
South and emancipate the slaves, which means 
not only the annihilation of the Southern State 
governments and the Southern State society ; 
it means something quite as tragical, i. e. the 
destruction of our federal system already 
almost consolidated by repeated and extreme 
violence, and the reorganizition of Northern So- 
ciety, on the new basis of class distinction instead 
of Democratic equality. While using the poor 
young white men of the North to destroy the 
South, the aristocrats have kept their sons out 
of danger; and they have absorbed all the pro- 
ductions of the country, sold them to be wasted 
in war at great profit to themselves, and now 
hold a creditor's claim on us for the whole 
amount, probably five thousand millions or the 
total value of all the North West. This claim 
is funded or to be funded, permanently bearing 
an interest of which producers, whether me- 
chanics, farmers or laborers, will have the 
expenses of collection as well as interest to pay 
for about three hundred millions of dollars 
per annum; or fifty millions for Ohio, five mil- 
lions for this city. The public debt is owned 
by the East; its principal weight will fall on 
the West, and it will require on all hands the 
most constant vigilance and perfect honesty to 
preserve our institutions and do both sections 
justice. This most alarming sum of five thou- 
sand millions of wasted property already 
threatens our system. It will far more than 
tithe the fields; it will double tithe them: 
«very third bushel will have to go for this dead 



horse, and those who booted and spurred will 
galvanize and ride him over the agriculturists 
rough shod. For this debt the farmers have 
not yet been directly taxed ; their time is at 
hand, and they are most deeply interested ia 
the question who shall be the next President. 

The interest and cost of the public debt; the 
army expenses of J half a million of men, of 
themselves, must make a wreck of our institu- 
tions; for with the machinery of old countries 
like England and France, we will soon arrive 
at their despotic form of government. The 
cause involves the effect; the premises the con- 
clusion, and if we decide to carry on the war 
according to Lincoln and McClellan, so as to 
merge all our remaining property in public 
stocks, bearing interest and exempt from taxes, 
we are the most willing slaves that ever ex- 
isted; we offer a premium for a master; and he 
will be a military master of course. There are 
other reasons why we are on the downward 
road from the best government in the world to 
the worst: from freedom to despotism. In this 
suicidal war our officers have violated all the 
provisions of the Constitution, as well as itg 
spirit; we have no more free speech, free press, 
free elections, and free people, or responsible 
rulers; but we obey the military and semi- 
military orders of a new set of lords, whose 
sovereign will is the supreme law of the land. 
It was a part of the system of southern subju- 
gation to extinguish southern liberty, and it 
has been far more faithfully achieved than its 
counterpart. \ 

What should the Convention have done ? 
What was expected of them? What will the 
people decide upon this most indispensable 
appeal ? 
•They should have done three things : 

I. Declared the Jeffersonian doctrine of the 
Democratic party as the platform. 

II. They should have placed their standard 
in the hands of a Representative candidate. 

III. They should have applied the true inter- 
pretation of the Constitution contained in ihe 
Resolutions of 1798, to the crisis. 

I. They should have declared plainly the 
principles of the party. What did they do? 
They contemptuously rejected them, spurned 
them under foot. They pretended to refer the 
first Kentucky Resolution for State Rights to a 
committee, while they instantly adopted the 
consolidation platform of New York. 

For sixty-five years the Kentucky and Vir- 
ginia Resolutions have been the basis of the 
Democracy : they are the Scriptures of the 
party. They have been announced as the 
democratic creed as a matter of course, by 
every statesman speaking at &uy time or place 
or in any manner for his party. But to that 
corrupt Convention, they were a charmed talis- 
man to expose their fraudulent platform; lor 
Thomas Jefferson the father of democracy had 
organized them as a Peace party as well as a 



State Rights party, and forbade the cement of 
blood in the federal structure, as the sound of 
the hammer was not allowed by the builders of 
the temple. The committee designedly sup- 
pressed the Resolutions in order to establish 
war and consolidation as the democratic doc- 
trine, and Hamilton and New York instead of 
Jefferson and Virginia, as the oracles of the 
Constitution. 

Fellow citizens, there is not only no provi- 
sion for liberty, there is no hope of liberty in 
a great territory like the United States, but by 
the true federal system under which each State 
has two constitutions, and two sets of officers, 
one for domestic, and the other for foreign 
purposes. If the federal officers at Washington 
City control the whole consolidated system, we 
have a despotism of the worst form, the despo- 
tism of the mere majority ; which is worse, be- 
cause more irresponsible than the despotism 
of Russia: the Czar has but one neck, our 
tyrant would be hydra-headed. Jefferson, the 
democrat, taught the sovereignty, independence 
and equality of the several states, and their 
voluntary Union under the federal constitu- 
tion. But Story and Webster, after the Adamses 
and Hamilton, held that the sovereignty of the 
States is a falsehood, and that a majority 
federal government may do as it pleases with 
the rights of the States and of the people. If 
that were so, there would be no propriety in 
having a solemn written constitution for the 
protection of the minority, or the restraint of 
the majority. If that were so, then the majo- 
rity of Congress like the British Parliament 
Would be omnipotent, which has hardly become 
American doctrine. If that be so, that majority 
could expel a member from the Union as well 
as coerce one or more to remain by force, which 
13 not yet openly pretended. The truth, which 
science will at last vindicate against all old 
and recent errors is, that the federal Constitu- 
tion is the voluntary compact of Union for 
each State which consents to it, each with all, 
the co-states being the other party ; that it is 
a continuing compact, and that all its powers 
are government trust powers; and not rights, 
tor sovereign powers ; and that they are dele- 
gated only, and not inherent; nor do in any 
wise impair the constitution making, altering, 
and breaking power, which is the ultimate 
power of the people of each State, over every, 
part of the whole system, so far as its citizens 
are concerned. " The people " of a State is the 
organized totality of all its inhabitants, which 
people alone is the depositary of the sovereignty. 

The Chicago Convention have left the true 
narrow path of the Constitution, and followed 
the broad road, trodden lately plainer than 
ever by the armed feet of military forces, 
downward into the Pandemonium of War; 
almost civil war; war between brethren and 
kindred States. 

We can not be thus misled. We point out 
the better way. We implore the people to 



follow the old Jeffersonian standard of Peace 
and State Rights. 

II. That standard should be borne aloft by 
a representative man. Instead of a represen- 
tative man like the great statesmen of the 
Revolution, we are asked to support a well 
known but rather ordinary Major General, to 
whose disabilities as a democratic candidate 
for the Presidency, we intend to devote a large 
part of this address. We do it with a formed 
design of influencing democrats not to vote for 
him, but rather to allow the election to go as 
it may while they stay at home. The evil 
counsels and the dictatorial doings of Gen. Mc- 
Clellan have always led President Lincoln's 
advance. Indeed, there is not one objection 
that Democrats have made to Mr. Lincoln's 
theories, not one malediction of Mr. Lincoln's 
acts which is not true of Gen. McClellan. 
Their records are as like as they could be; 
and if thev had exchanged their positions in 
this unhallowed strife, their failures would 
have been identical. With what power of face 
must any man be gifted to enable him to call 
upon Democrats after four years specific curs- 
ing of Lincoln and Lincolnism, to vote for his 
right hand man McClellan, for President? 
And that too, when the people's agony and in- 
dignation had but one cry, peace, peace, peace, 
immediate peace; and but one hope, on earth 
as in heaven, in blessed peace : a peace which 
among brethren is always honorable, and be- 
tween brethren can always be made by good 
will on honorable terms. Christ himself, in 
the sermon from the sacred mount, called the 
peacemakers the children of God. 

Every member of the Democratic party had a 
right to expect — yea, demand — that the Con- 
vention should conform their action to the usages 
and priuciples of the party they proposed to 
represent. That their candidate should be chosen 
from that party, and committed to its princi- 
ples. That in making their selection of a can- 
didate for the Presidency, the popular will in 
reference to existing issues would be con- 
sulted. Many months before the Convention as- 
sembled, well grounded suspicions were indulg- 
ed, that efforts would be made by the combined 
power of foreign and domestic capital to con- 
trol its action, and secure the nomination of a 
military man committed to their schemes of 
centralization. And it is with the deepest mor- 
tification and regret that your Committee are 
constrained to yield to the conviction that such 
a result was fully attained by the nomination 
of Gen. Geo. B. McClellan, who was then and is \ 
now a Major General in the United States 
army, holding the office for life with a salary 
of $8,000 per year, which appointment was 
conferred upon him by Mr. Lincoln, since the 
commencement of the existing war, as hhpledged 
and faithful friend. 

Had a Butler, Stanton, Banks or Cameron, 
been selected by the Convention, or even 



Mr. Lincoln himself, a greater antagonism be- 
tween the principles of the party and its can- 
didate could not have been produced. Like 
Butler, Stanton, Banks and Cameron, Gen. Mc- 
Clellan entered upon the present administration 
in full fellowship and sympathy with Mr. Lin- 
coln and his party. He followed Mr. Lincoln 
as long and as far as Mr. Lincoln would permit 
him to follow, and it is no fault of Gen. Mc- 
Clellan's that he is not now acting in haranny 
with Mr. Lincoln and his administration. The 
fault is Mr. Lincoln's, who relieved him of his 
command, and sent him in disgrace to report to 
his wife in New Jersey. No man has ever done 
so much to give to Mr. Lincoln's administration 
its worst and most objectionable features as 
Gen. McClellan. Every outrage of which the 
Democratic masses have complained, and 
against which they have so often resolved was 
either originated*, recommended, or approved, 
by Gen. McClellan during his connection with 
Mr. Lincoln. Arbitrary arrests, the draft, 
military interference with slavery, and the 
ballot box, suspension of habeas corpus, are 
all the pet offsprings of his military genius. 
We shall not attempt to convince you of these 
painful truths by our own arguments or decla- 
ration : but will proceed at once to direct your 
attention to the record of stubborn facts, made 
by Gen. McClellan himself, and published by 
order of the Congress of the United States. 

In the first t>f£cial communication of Gen. 
McClellan to Mr. Lincoln, dated 4th of August, 
1861, he uses this language: "The purpose of 
ordinary war is to conquer a peace, and make 
a treaty upon advantageous terms; in this con- 
test it has become necessary to crush a population 
sufficiently numerous, intelligent and warlike, 
to constitute a nation." Fellow-democrats, we 
beseech you to pause and blush, if you do not 
weep, for the honor of our cause. Our party 
are the peculiar advocates of the great American 
theory — that the people are the source of power 
and that all governments derive their just au- 
thority from the consent of the governed. And 
yet it is proposed that we shall give our support 
to a man for the Presidenc}', whose unsheathed 
sword is still dripping with the blood of his 
slain, who is booted and spurred for war, with 
the declaration of a hellish wrath clinging to his 
lips, that this war must be continued until we 
" crush " eight millions of our kindred and 
countrymen, because they are " sufficiently 
numerous, intelligent and warlike to become 
a nation." 

Again, in the same communication to which 
we have referred, this boasted apostle of De- 
mocracy while professing to others, to be fight- 
ing for the Constitution and Union, advises 
Mr. Lincoln to equip an army in Kansas and 
Nebraska, to be marched through the Indian 
country into Texas ; there to be joined and 
supported by another army to be equipped in 
California, and marched overland through New 
Mexico. For what? To maintain the authority 



of the Constitution and restore the Union ? No. 
But to abolish slavery and make a free State of 
Texas. So anxious was he for the success of 
this diabolical scheme, that he advises Mr. Lin- 
coln to form an " alliance" with the despotic 
government of Mexico to ensure its success ; 
assuming and declaring that Mexican anti- 
pathy to slavery would make such an alliance 
acceptable to them. 

The reader will bear in mind that the com- 
munication with which we are now dealing was 
written by Gen. McClellan to Mr. Lincoln 
durins; the first six months of Mr. Lincoln's 
administration, and contains the first sugges- 
tion ever made to Mr. Lincoln, so far as the 
public are informed, of armed military interfer- 
ence zvith the institution of slavery. 

Fellow Democrats be not startled ; we have a 
solemn and painful duty to perform, and we 
have entered upon it with the firm purpose of 
removing the veil of hypocrisy from the face of 
guilt, tearing the cloak of Democracy from the 
shoulders of infamy, and exposing the schemes 
of those who, under its sacred vesture, are plot- 
ting the ruin of our country, and the extermi- 
nation of liberty and free government. 

Think of it citizens and soldiers — two vast 
armies to be organized and equipped three thou- 
sand miles apart, to be marched over dreary 
deserts and uninhabited regions, at an incalcu- 
lable cost of life and treasure, for no other 
purpose than to make Texas a free State. The 
schemes of Gen. McClellan against slavery, 
recommended to Mr. Lincoln, were not confined 
to Texas alone, but extended wherever the 
tyrant's plea of military necessity could be mads 
to prevail, as we shall presently show by refer- 
ence to his subsequent communications on the 
same subject in their regular order of time. 

That you may understand the character of 
the man who now asks your suffrages for the 
Presidency, his duplicity and hollow pretences, 
we beg you to keep in mind the important and 
inconteslible truth disclosed by hi* own pub- 
lished correspondence, that while h» was recom- 
mending to Mr. Lincoln vile schemes for the 
destruction of slavery, employing t^e military 
power of the country to carry elections for the 
Republican party, and asserting that our 
brethren of the South should be '' crushed" be- 
cause they are "intelligent and ivarlike," he is 
with the same pen writing to Halleck, Burn- 
side and Buell, and impressing upon them the 
importance of making the people believe that 
the war was prosecuted solely to restore the 
Union and re-establish the authority of the 
Constitution. 

In his letter of instruction to Gen. Burnside, 
Commanding Expedition to North Carolina, 
dated 7th of January, 1862, he advises that 
officer to " say as little as possible about poli- 
tics or the negro," it would not suit in that 
latitude, and at that time ; but in his letter to 
Gen. Buell of the 7th November, 1861, he says, 
'• It is possible that the condnct of our politico^ 



8 



cfairs in Kentucky is more important than that 
cf our military operations.'' 

What political affairs did Gen. McClellan then 
hare charge of in Kentucky that were "more 
important than our military operations'"' Were 
they the political affairs of the Republican 
party of which he was then an active member 
and willing tool ? or is it possible that they 
were the political affairs of the down-trodden 
"traitorous copperhead Democracy" as he and 
his party are accustomed to call us? We leave 
the answer to common sense if there be any 
left in the country. 

On the subject of arbitrary arrests and the 
suspension of the habeas corpus, for which Lin- 
coln and his advisers have been so severely cen- 
sured, it is only necessary to examine the letters 
and orders of Gen. McClellan to know that he is 
the author of the system. He was the " Young 
Napoleon" of the early days of Mr. Lincoln's 
administration, across whose illimitable vision 
no shadow dare flit. All the departments of 
the government, State and Federal, and even 
the people, learned implicit obedience to the 
imperial will of this sceptered General, ''wrapt 
m the solitude of his own originality." 

On the 11th of November, 1861, he writes to 
Gen. Halleck, then at St. Louis, referring to a 
class of persons who claimed to have military 
appointments, he says, "If any of them give 
you the slightest trouble, you will at once arrest 
them and send them under guard out of the 
limits of your department, informing them that 
if they return they will be placed in close 
confinement. 

Could an order be more arbitrary than this? 
he .accusation, no trial; but men to be driven 
arbitrarily from their homes, their families 
their friends; denied even the poor privilege 
of remonstrating against such acts of lawless 
tyranny, lest they should be immured in some 
filthy dungeon to live upon its vapors, and die 
like felons. 

On the 12th of November, 1861, just one day 
after, he writes to Gen. Buell and says, "when 
there is good reason to believe that persons are 
giving aid, comfort or information to the enemy 
it is of course necessary to arrest them " No 
ease of military arrest has ever occurred where 
the officer ordering the arrest did not claim to 
have "good reason for making it," but as such 
reason was never required to be given to the 
public, or the party arrested, that he might dis- 
charge himself from the suspicion or accusation 
against him, if any, the public, as well us the 
victims of such arbitrary power, have been kept 
in utter ignorance of the cause of such arrests. 
II Gen. McClellan had respected the authority 
oi the Constitution and laws of the country he 
would have required that all such persons' as 
fie describee, when arres'ed, should be handed 
over to the civil authorities for trial and pun- 
ishment; to be confronted, with witnesses against 
them, and to have compulsory process for wit- 
nesses in their favor; but, like all others, f 



which we have complained, he, in every instance, 
lett his subordinates to decide upon the suffi- 
ciency of the cause, the mode of trial, and the 
extent and character of the punishment. In 
fact his orders authorized those under his com- 
mand, to arrest with or without cause they 
being the judges ; and to punish without accu- 
sation or trial, they being both accuser and 
judge. 

- The arrest and imprisonment of the Maryland 
legislature by order of Gen. McClellan is the 
crowning evidence of the despotic temper and 
arbitrary will of the man, and is justly re- 
garded as the most highhanded act of military 
tyranny to be found in the annals of history 
In this case as in all others we have cited no 
shelter can be found for Gen. McClellan under 
" superior orders." Each and every case was 
the emanation of his own will. The suggestion, 
thej^aw of arrest, and imprisonment, of the 
unoffending representatives of the people of 
Maryland were his own ; the execution of the 
plan was intrusted by him to " My Dear Gen 
Banks." (See his letter to Gen. Banks on this' 
subject.) 

Gen. McClellan had no orders from the Presi- 
dent or Secretary of War, to commit this vile 
and unparalleled outrage upon the sovereignty 
ot a State, and the personal rights of the indi- 
vidual citizen. A Republican abolition General 
of the Army of the United States, in 1861 
causes the sovereignty of a State to be invaded 
and insulted, its legislature arrested, imprison- 
ed, and finally discharged without accusation 
or trial, by the same arbitrary will that caused 
such arrest and imprisonment, and claims the 
support of the State rights, law-abiding Con- 
stitution-loving old Democratic party for Presi- 
dent, in 1864. How st range it looks does it not? 
"A free ballot or a free fight," is now declared 
to be the purpose of the Democratic party. And 
here permit us respectfully to suggest that it 
would be well for you to look into the record of 
Gen. McClellan, which he has so arrogantly 
made the platform of the party, and ascertain 
whether he is willing to go into a "free fio-ht 
for a free ballot." The following order issued 
by him on the day it bears date will very much 
assist your inquiries on this point. 



" Headquarters Army of the Potomac,) 
Washington, October 29, 1861. '} 

"General: There is an apprehension among 
Union citizens in many parts of Maryland of 
an attempt at interference with their rights of 
Suffrage by disunion citizens, on the occasion 
of the election to take place on the 6th of No- 
vember next. 

" In order to prevent this, the Major General 
Commanding directs that you send detachments 
of a sufficient number of men to the different 
points in your vicinity where the elections are 
to be held, to protect the Union voters, and to see 
that no disunionists are allowed to intimidate 
them, or in any way to interfere with their 
rights. 



9 



" He also de3ires you to arrest and hold in 
confinement, till after the election, all dis- 
unionists who are known to have returned from 
Virginia recently, and who show themselves at 
the polls, and to guard effectually against any 
invasion of the peace and order of the election. 
For the purpose of carrying out these instruc- 
tions you are authorized to suspend the writ of 
habeas corpus. General Stone has received 
similar instructions to these. You will please 
confer with him as to the particular points that 
each shall take the control of. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient 
servant, R. B. Marcy, Chief of Staff. 

Major General N. P. Banks, Commanding 
Division, Muddy Branch, Md." 

The object of the foregoing order is too 
transparent for comment; '•'-little Mac" was not 
then in favor of a •'• free ballot." On the 29th 
of October, 1861, Democrats had no rights in 
Maryland that even a " negro was buund to 
respect," according to his theory at that time. 
He was then in the employment of Mr. Lincoln, 
fighting the political battles of the Republican 
party in Maryland and Kentucky, where Demo- 
crats were called " Copperheads" and "Copper 
heads" were called " disunionists," and were not 
entitled to vote. 

Col. R. B. Marcy, who signs the foregoing 
order, is the father-in-law of Gen. McClellan, 
and at that time his Chief of Staff. He says in 
the order, the " Major General Commanding" 
directs, &c. What did the " Major General 
Commanding" direct? l8t. That Gen. Stone 
and Gen. Banks should send a sufficient num- 
ber of soldiers-to each election precinct in the 
State of Maryland, to protect " Union voters," 
alias Republican voters. 2d. " He also directs 
you to arrest and hold in confinement, until 
after the election all disunionists," alias Demo- 
crats. 

Why " arrest and hold them in confinement 
until after the election" except to prevent them 
voting, and to deter other Democrats from go- 
ing to the polls and making the attempt. 

For the purpose of carrying out this detest- 
able order, he says to Gen. Banks and Gen. 
Stone, " You are authorized to suspend the 
writ of habeas corpus." This was the unkindest 
cut of all. A man claiming to be the candidate 
of the Democratic party for President, suspend- 
ing the writ of habeas corpus in or'aer to im- 
prison Democrats beyond the relief of the law, 
and thereby to prevent them voting, and to 
carry the elections of the State of Maryland for 
the abolition party. 

Reader have you forgotten the history of 
that day ? If so, go back to the files of your 
old newspapers and examine once more in 
shame and scorn the long list of your oppress- 
ed countrymen, your down-trodden Democratic 
brethren, who were incarcerated in loathsome 
prisons by that infamous order of General 
McClellan. The ballot box — the last refuge of 



freedom destroyed by a Republican Major 
General, who now asks your support for Presi- 
dent of the United States, having no higher 
claim to your confidence and support than that 
he has forfeited that of Mr. Lincolns and the 
Republican party. We would be glad if the 
chapter of his evil deeds and audacious de- 
signs could end here; but the culminated 
point is still before us and must be told. 

Having inaugurated the odious, oppressive 
and tyranical system of Provost Marshals, 
and arbitrary arrests, and dictated the whole 
system of military interference with slavery 
as at present practiced, having broken down 
and destroyed the ballot box, having recom- 
mended or by his own order violated every 
right that Democrats hold dear; his next phase 
is that of a conspirator against our Constitu- 
tion and form of government; prompting Mr. 
Lincoln to disregard his Constitutional ad- 
visers, turn Cabinet, Congress and courts out 
of doors and take upon himself the responsi- 
bility of administering the affairs of the gov- 
ernment according to his own will. In pur- 
suance of the atrocious and astounding scheme, 
he addresses Mr. Lincoln a long letter from 
Harrison's Landing, Va., dated the 7th of July, 
1862, which for audacity of design, and dis- 
graceful subserviency is without a model. It is 
the most remarkable and extraordinary docu- 
ment this war has produced in either section 
of our distracted country. Under the pretence of 
correcting evils, and introducing a more civi- 
lized and christian spirit into the conduct &f 
the war, and under cover of the most wise and 
patriotic expressions, it adroitly conceals the 
glittering gems of a military despotism to 
tempt the ambition of the President. 

He says to Mr. Lincoln, the 1; time has come, 
when the government must determine upon a 
civil and military policy, covering the whole 
ground of our national trouble. The responsi- 
bility of determining, declaring, and supporting 
such civil and military policy, and of directing 
the whole course of national affairs in regard 
to the rebellion must now be assumed and exer- 
cised by you Abraham Lincoln, or our cause 
will be lost. The Constitution gives you power 
even for the present terrible exigency.'' The 
substance of the foregoing is, that Mr. Lincoln 
should assume to be the government, and take 
upon himself the " responsibility" of determin- 
ing and declaring its " civil" and "military" 
policy. Now we ask what is comprehended in 
the civil and military policy of a government? 
Is it not the power of making laws, construing 
them, and executing them ? Such then is the re- 
sponsibility which Mr. Lincoln is recommended 
by General McClellan to assume. 

Our Constitution has wisely divided the 
federal power into three separate, independent 
and co-ordinate departments, assigning to each 
i its powers and duties, and for the first time in 
J our history we are informed that the Presi- 
dent who represents one department only, 



10 



may constitutionally take upon himself the 
powers, duties and administration of all the 
other departments. It would truly be a " terri- 
ble exigency" that would thus construe the 
powers of the President, and authorize him 
to make his will the law of the land, as Gen- 
eral McClellan has advised. What else could 
he mean by telling Mr. Lincoln that he must 
"assume the responsibility of determining and de- 
claring the civil and military policy, and direct- 
ing the ivhole course of national affairs, if he 
does not. mean to advise him to usurp the 
power of the other departments of the govern- 
ment. It must be admitted by the most de- 
voted admirers of his military genius and 
legal learning, that it would be utterly im- 
possible for Mr. Lincoln to direct the whole 
Bourse of national affairs, as long as the power 
of Congress remained to direct him ; that he 
could not determine and declare the civil and 
military policy of the government, without 
silencing Congress and the courts. He could 
not " assume" and "exercise" the powers pro- 
posed by General McClellan without treason 
arid violence. 

The civil and military policy which Mr. 
Lincoln is advised to determine upon and declare, 
is to "cover the whole ground of our national 
trouble." Now General McClellan must either 
deny that slavery formed any portion of the 
ground of our "national trouble" which he 
oan not successfully do, or admit that Mr. 
Lincoln's proclamation in competition with the 
"Popes bull against the comet " were recom- 
mended and approved by him. If slavery 
entered into the cause or foundation, of our na- 
tional troubles as asserted by Mr. Lincoln and 
proclaimed by all the Republicans from Maine 
to California, it was well known to Gen. McClel- 
lan ; and Mr. Lincoln has only taken his fatal 
advice in that subject as upon many others of 
greater and less degrees of importance. The 
animus of this remarkable document can readi- 
ly be collected by reading the eighth paragraph 
of the letter to which we refer as published in 
his report to the Secretary of war. 

He proposes to Mr. Lincoln to unite with 
him in overthrowing the government he was 
aworn to preserve, and establishing upon the 
ruins of the Union and the Constitution, a 
military despotism of which Mr. Lincoln was 
to be the law giver, and he, McClellan, the chief 
agent and executor of his will. He says to 
Mr. Lincoln: "In carrying out any system 
of policy you may form, you will require a 
Commander-in-Chief of the army, one who 
possesses your confidence, understands your 
views, and who is competent to execute your 
orders, by directing the military forces of the 
nation to the accomplishment of the objects by 
you proposed. 

I dont ask that place for myself. I am wil- 
ling to serve you in such position as you may 
assign me, and I will do so as faithfully as 
ever subordinate served tujicrior." 



Could words be found in the English lan- 
guage to express more clearly the unhallowed 
purpose and traitorous design of General Mc- 
Clellan than those we have quo ed. 

If the communication referred to had been 
addressed to General McClellan while acting 
as Commander-in-Chief of the army, by one 
of his subordinate officers, and had fallen 
into the hands of the Secretary of War, the 
writer would have been promptly arrested, 
tried, convicted, and executed under military 
law. General McClellan not only proposes to 
Mr. Lincoln to commit a high crime by con- 
verting the free governmnent of our country 
into a military despotism, to be controlled by 
the will of Mr. Lincoln alone; but he also 
proposes to be the instrument of the foul deed. 
He tells Mr. Lincoln, that he, Lincoln, can con- 
fide in him, McClellan ; that he, McClellan, 
understands his, Lincoln's views, and is com- 
petent to execute his, Lincoln's orders; and 
that he, McClellan, will take command of the 
army and employ it for the accomplishment 
of any object he, Lincoln may propose ; but if 
Mr. Lincoln will not trust him, McClellan, 
with the chief command, he, McClellan is so 
anxious to serve him, Lincoln, that he will 
accept any other position that he, Lincoln may 
choose to assign him, McClellan; and that he, 
the said McClellan will serve him, the said 
Lincoln as "faithfully as ever subordinate served 
superior." It will be observed that the service 
proposed by General McClellan is not to the 
Country or the cause of the Union and the 
Constitution, but to IPhatever course Mr. Lin- 
coln may espouse; or whatever object Mr. 
Lincoln may prepare. Throughout the entire 
prayer of the guilty petitioner, and unscru- 
pulous adviser, the words "you" and "your" 
are employed. The Constitution, the Union, 
the Country, or its cause are not ever alluded to. 

Was ever such contemptible subserviency, 
such profound obsequiousness, such fawning 
sycophaney, such damning guilt before dis- 
played by any man aspiring to public confi- 
dence and high official position? 

Having adverted to the recommendations of 
General McClellan on the subject of slavery 
in Texas, we are brought in the regular pro- 
gress of investigation to the general views on 
that subject, as we find them in his letter to 
Mr. Lincoln of the 7th of July 1862. In this 
boasted communication he admits the power 
of Congress to abolish slavery in the States, 
and declares that it is the duty of the army to 
give slaves protection. His words are as fol- 
lows: "Slaves contraband under the Act of 
Congress seeking military protection should 
receive it." What are slaves contraband? 
The word contraband signifies illegal traffic. 
And as General McClellan is a man of too 
much learning not to understand the true 
force and import of his own words, no doubt 
can exist as to the idea he means to convey. 
In the same connection he says: "the right of 



11 



the gorernment to appropriate permanently to 
it3 own service claims to slave labor should be 
asserted'' Either one of these declarations 
involves the admission of the power of Con- 
gress, or the government, if you please, to 
destroy slavery. At this point it may be 
useful to enquire what permanent service the 
government, could possibly have for negro men, 
woman and children, except to make a stand- 
ing army of. the men, and support the women 
and children at the public expense, as is now 
being done, in accordance with General Mc- 
Clellan's recommendation. 

Having laid down the principle, he pro- 
ceeds to tell Mr. Lincoln how it may be applied 
80 as to destroy slavery in any given State. 
He says this principle of appropriating slave 
labor permanently to the service of the govern- 
ment "might be extended upon grounds of 
military necessity and security, to all the slaves 
of a particular State thus working manumision 
in such State." The plan here recommended 
by General McClellan for the destruction of 
slavery, portrays the most insidious, false, 
and Jesuitical character this war has evolved; 
knavery without boldness, duplicity without 
principle, a will without courage, are the lead- 
ing characteristics of the man. 'J ake the 
slaves he says, by military power, or under 
the accursed plea of " military necessity ' ; and 
under the false pretence of appropriating them 
permanently to the government service, work 
manumision in any given State. 

It may be said by the friends of General 
McClellan, that while he asserts the right of 
the government to appropriate permanently 
to its own use claims to slave labor; he also 
admits that the right of the owner to compen- 
sation therefor, should be recognized. This 
fact does not change the principle involved. 
The right of the owner to compensation when 
his property is taken for public use, is recog- 
nized by the laws of the land, and could ac- 
quire no additional strength from the sanction 
of General McClellan. The admission or re- 
cognition of a right where there is -no remedy 
for its violation, or power to protect and enjoy 
the right, is a very cheap apology for trespass 
or crime. Trial by jury is a right reeognized 
by the Constitution, yet like the right of the 
owner to compensation for his property, it is 
wholly disregarded. 

When private property is taken for public 
use, the owner is entitled to actual compensa- 
tion, and not to a mere admission or acknowl- 
edgment of a right to get his compensation if 
he can. The question is one of power, and not 
of reciprocal duty and justice where the object is 
in good faith the government service and the 
public good. In the case before us the govern- 
ment service is, as proposed by General Mc- 
Clellan the mere pretext or excuse, while he 
admits the main and real object to be the manu- 
mision of the negro slaves. 

It is also urged in his defense, that he ex- 



pressly declares in the same communication, 
that "military power should not be allowed 
to interfere with the relations of servitude." 
The admission of this fact which is cheerfully 
made, only establishes the fact that General 
McClellan's habit has been to take both sides 
of a question, that he might be sure to cheat 
some body. The admission can not fail to 
place him in such a light, when contrasted 
with his distinct plan of manumision under the 
plea of military necessity. Tiie antagonism thus 
presented between his two propositions, to 
interfere, and not to interfere, is perfectly 
reconcilable with the whole history and char- 
acter of the man as disclosed by his acts, 
orders, and correspondence, commencing with 
the administration of Mr. Lincoln and termi- 
nating with the letter of acceptance. And wo 
know of no rule of construction more applica- 
ble to the orders and letters of General Mc- 
Clellan than that ordinarily applied to Wills 
where in case of conflicting claims or devises; 
the Court adopts the last, declaration as the 
Will of the testator. 

The proposition that "military power should 
not be allowed to interfere with the relations 
of servitude," is a declaration of policy which 
is abandoned in the next sentence of the same 
communication, by the enunciation of a prin- 
ciple and its application through the military 
power, or as he expresses it, " military necessity" 
to the destruction of the very servitude with 
which it was his pretended policy not to inter- 
fere. The principle is applied in detail to 
Missouri, Maryland, and Virginia, Avith the 
remark that its success is only a question of 
time. 

The draft, which is so persistently placed to 
the account of Mr. Lincoln, and which is the 
source of so much discontent, like all the other 
odious measures of Mr. Lincoln's administra- 
tion, was first recommended by Gen. McClellan, 
as will appear from the following note from 
Gen. McClellan to Mr. Lincoln, to be found ia 
McPherson's documents, page 274 : 

Washington, Aug. 20, 1861. 

Sir — I have just received the endorsed dis- 
patch in cypher. Col. Marcy knows what he 
says, and is of the coolest judgment. 

I recommend that the Secretary of War ascer- 
tain at once by telegram how the enrollment 
proceeds in New York and elsewhere, and if it 
is not proceeding with great rapidity draft to be 
made at once. We must have men without de- 
lay. Respectfully your obedient servant 
GEORGE B. McCLELLAN. 

Maj. Gen' I U. S. A. 

The impossibility of giving a true and faithful 
history of Gen. McClellan without offending 
those who advocate his vain pretensions has 
hitherto, we have no doubt, prevented the at- 
tempt, and induced those who cannot defend him 
but acquiesce in his nomination, to delight their 
hearers with their amiable peace speeches. Har- 



12 



ing themselves surrendered to the despotism of 
party, they would now enslave rather than en- 
lighten the public mind by dealing in the 
recorded and inexorable truths of history. 

The shackles of party must be broken; 
slavery of conscience and opinion be destroyed, 
and man left free to reason himself into the 
perception of truth and freedom before he is 
capable of self-government. 

The draft and other evils -which have so sorely 
oppressed and afflicted our country for the 
past three years are, in truth, the mere erup- 
tions of the common virulence of civil war 
that can only be alleviated by the benign influ- 
ence of peace. As long as the people favor a 
continuance of the war, they must be prepared 
for a continuance of its multiplying evils. 
Men and money are the sinews of war, and if 
they are not voluntarily contributed, the appli- 
cation of force for such purpose is as necessary 
as the war itself. 

We should not deceive ourselves by indulging 
the insaue idea that war can be conducted 
without men or money, or the occurrence of 
those dreadful evils that our experience proves 
to be, the natural historical concomitants of 
fraternal strife. Concession and compromise 
are the only highways to peace, in which all 
patriots and christians should travel. 

The bloody path of war strewn with the 
wrecks of free government leads to desolation 
and death. 

Robbery and violence lose not their criminal 
qualities in consideration of the personages by 
Whom they are committed or protected. And if 
a continuance of the war under Mr. Lincoln is 
wrong, its continuance under Gen. McClellan 
would be criminal. There is no middle ground 
between peace and war, except that which is 
the centre between two points of right and 
wrong— like the antagonism between truth and 
falsehood it is utterly irreconcilable; and if this 
8'iicidal war is to be continued, it is our best 
judgment and fondest hope that it may be con- 
ducted to its close by the party in power — that 
humanity may be spared the last pangs of re- 
morseful conscience, and the soul of Democracy 
be free from its stain. Far better that Democ- 
racy should wear the chain of slavery to the 
grave of liberty, or sink into that gulf that 
threatens to embosom our country, than coalize 
With infamy and vice, or become the execution- 
er of its country's freedom. 

The dangers thai environaour country are not 
to be found in any political organization or 
principle, now publicly avowed or acknowl- 
edged — but in the vast opportunity which war 
has opened to the rapacity of mankind. 

Capital throughout the world is now in the 
field with its marshaled hosts, reinforced by 
seven thousand five hundred millions of public 
indebtedness, (as the aggregate of both sec- 
tions, ) with drawn sabres, ready to charge upon 
liberty and free government. Our loss is their 
gain ; our fields of carnage and desolation are j 



the sources of their power, and the foundation 
of their hopes — and with the death of liberty 
comes the resurrection of despotism and the 
triumph of the rich over the poor — capital over 
labor. The struggle that awaits us, and which 
is to decide the fate of self-government in this 
hemisphere will be fought by foreign and do- 
mestic capital combined, to foreclose the mort- 
gage of war upon our goods and chattels, lands, 
tenements, and form of government, upon the 
one side, — and the labor and industry of the 
country upon the other. The princes of Europe 
whose thrones were trembling before the suc- 
cessful march of our experiment are gazing with 
unmingled delight upon their hopeful future, 
and eager to unite their arms to the cause of 
capital and despotism for the common subjuga- 
tion of our country, north as well as south, and 
the re-establishment of the odious doctrines of 
passive obedience and non resistence, snatching 
from the people their inherent rights, and again 
planting upon the soil of America the victori- 
ous standard of the king and the parliament. 

The North-west, and great valley of the 
Mississippi, were already regarded with suspi- 
cion and jealousy, lest their pursuits, coupled 
with a native independence of thought and 
action inspired by their love of liberty and 
free government, should lead them in defence 
of a common right, and the altars of their 
uncorruptible fathers — to thwart the well set- 
tled plans of a monied aristocracy to drive 
them from the independent and honorable po- 
sition of American proprietors, to the degrad- 
ing European vassalage of mere tenants of a 
soil which is theirs by all the laws of inheri- 
tance and purchase. 

It is a country so vast in resources, and so ca- 
pable of almost unlimited expansion, that it is 
now tempting the cupidity and rapacity of the 
plunderers of mankind. A moneyed aristoc- 
racy under the vanguard of miliary necessity, 
threatens the citadel of our future hopes. 
Hating our form of government which makes 
men equal, and protects alike the rich and the 
poor, they still admire the comfort of our 
homes, are dazzled with the treasures of our 
lands and fields, and captivated by the variety 
and productiveness of our soil and climate. 
In other words, while they despise Pharaoh, 
they long for the onions and garlic of Egypt. 

III. In order to complete the organization of 
the Peace and State Rights Party of the future, 
we must not only declare the cardinal princi- 
ples of Democracy, and place its standard in 
representative hands; but we should make a 
prompt application of the resolutions of Ken- 
tucky and Virginia to the actual facts of the 
first truly great crisis for which they were 
written as a guide.. The puny attempts at 
consolidation by the alien and sedition laws, 
were as nothing compared to the dangers from 
centralization and abolitionism. These crimes 
against government and society are great 



13 



enough to swallow all their predecessors, and 
to make an end of our institutions. We might 
enlarge on the charges against Lincoln's civil 
administration of affairs, and we might dis- 
cuss the hopeless military efforts at subjuga- 
tion of the South ; but we choose to waive 
them both in this address, and to dwell on vio- 
lations of the true theory of the Federal Con- 
stitution, which have compelled us to organize 
the Peace Party upon the basis of State Plights ; 
and to take sides with Thomas Jefferson's 
gpinions for State Sovereignty against the 
false theory of consolidation. With a fidelity 
worthy of a better cause, and with a sagacity 
which is more 'han the cunning of little 
minds, but less than the wisdom of a states- 
man, Mr. Lincoln has clung to his errors of 
constitutional doctrine, announced first at 
Indianapolis on starting to Washington, iu 
1861, that he could see no difference between 
the position of a County in a State, and that of 
a State in the Union ; and finished when he 
told the Chicago clergy that he felt that he 
had the right to do anything, he thought best 
for the good of the country. It behooves us to 
take a lesson from Mr. Lincoln. And that les- 
son is that the Democratic leaders have not con- 
centrated the part!/ upon an opposite doctrine, 
and made the rugged issue of principle tested by 
the constitution. 

No resolute Peace and State Rights Party 
can submit in their steadfast devotion to the 
public good to any other doctrine than'that the 
war itself is a violation of the constitution — 
is absolutely forbidden. That true position 
places them upon the rock of principle, which 
their antagonists must assail at great disad- 
vantage. It denies utterly the right of coer- 
cion ; and puts the federal system on the foun- 
dation of State consent for each and all the 
parties to a voluntary union during pleasure. 
If the Northern States, disgusted with slave- 
holders, had seceded, there would have been 
but one opinion among us, about the wrong of 
coercion, because of the right of secession ; and 
war, to supply the place of volition, if proposed 
by the South, would have been derided by the 
North. And yet principle is not a geographi- 
cal nor a personal matter. We must insist 
that Mr. Lincoln has mistaken his office and 
our rights ; and assert against nim and his 
followers, the equality, independence and sove- 
reignty of the States, and the voluntary nature 
of the Union which he is fighting to reestab- 
lish because he believes it compulsory. Dem- 
ocratic leaders have been false to the country 
in all this struggle. They have made their pri- 
vate griefs the occasion of complaint, instead 
of the organic disturbance of our institutions. 
A procession of States, headed by New York 
and closed by Ohio, demanded Mr. Vallandig- 
ham from arbitrary exile of the President. 
Not disputing his war doctrine, they seemed 
to '-e unbelievers in sovereign States, and a 
volunta::- union — consolidationists in fact; and 



his reply was conclusive. " The country is in a 
war of self-preservation. Why should I shoot 
the poor deserter for example's sake, and for- 
give Mr. Vallaudingham who does not differ 
with mc intelligibly about our constitutional 
system, but does an injury a thousand times 
greater to the cause? " Unless Mr. Vallandig- 
ham ceases to talk of the sovereignty of the 
Federal Government, and with his friends goes 
for correct doctrine, and asserts the sovereign- 
ty of the States, and their voluntary union,°he 
must accept his fate as perfectly legitimate. 
Habeas corpus is not for such consolidationists ; 
and their appeals to the British precedents 
have a like answer. That cruel government 
in the same circumstances, would not only 
suspend the writ altogether, but hang up or 
cut down the whole itinerating fraternity by 
thousands without remorse. Well do we know 
whereof we affirm. The error of Mr. Vallan- 
digham was his ignorance of the nature of the 
Federal Government, and his half truth that 
he had a right to protection from arbitrary 
arrest, but concealing the fact, that he had beeu 
caught flagrante delicto opposing an administra- 
tion in a great war. His clamor was nonsense 
if the majority of States can rightfully coerco 
a single State; and he must be brought to say 
that the right of coercion cannot exist, because 
there is a right of secession, and two opposing 
rights are impossible. There can be no reaj 
check to the war short of exhaustion, till new 
leaders put their opponents in the wrong and 
themselves in the right upon the total uncon- 
stitutionality of the was. The Kansas case 
might teach us a lesson against prevarication. 
In that convulsion half truth only was avowed, 
and the question, at issue throughout all the 
disgraceful folios of reports and speeches waa 
never stated by our side. Mr. Douglas claimed 
the right of self-government for squatters, With- 
out disclosing that they were exercising under 
that disguise the more than despotic power of 
excluding from settlement, half the States who 
were joint owners of the territories ! Will 
the Democracy be always afraid of the truth ? 
Are they afraid of it now ? 

It takes a creed as well as followers to or- 
ganize a party, and nothing can be hoped from 
mere unorganized opposition, or organized op- 
position not directed by principle. Mr. Lin- 
coln has his theory that the American States 
arc counties ; that he is an Emperor, (Impera- 
tor) whose war powers, or his rightful func- 
tions as President commanding-in chief, or, 
alas, the military necessity, authorise to play 
the autocrat to force the loan of the last dollar, 
and to require at his will the last life from the 
North for the conquest of the South. Acting 
upon these despotic and sanguinary doctrines, 
Mr. Lincoln has destroyed our federal system, 
from the very beginning of his term, and ho 
should be met eye to eye and face to face, by 
the absolute denial of his creed, and the asser- 
tion of the opposite, as well as by the selection 



u 



of a representative candidate on the true 
Jeffersonian grounds that he is "honest, capa- 
ble and faithful to the Constitution." 

The Democratic creed is wholly adverse to 
consolidation. And that creed springs from 
the history and philosophy of the federal sys- 
tem; of which the first Kentucky resolution is 
the best expression, as we have previously de- 
monstrated. 

Let us consider the prominent measures of 
consolidation and first of the so called " na- 
tional 'forces." Each State should assert her 
iwn sovereignty as the vital spark of her 
existence, without which she must die, and she 
must insist that she claims the allegiance of 
her citizens against the Federal Government's 
conscriptions. 

The militia of the States cannot be taken 
away by force, nor under cover of unconstitu- 
tional law and by connivance of mercenary 
and criminal judges, Governors and legisla- 
tures. And it is the right, it is the highest 
duty of every State, to interpose her sovereign- 
ty against these drafts of millions from the 
people's choicest children. Since January last 
1, '200,000 young men have been called for by 
the President, and within a year another mil- 
lion will be wanted. When the ship is being 
gunk by the captain with all on board ; or the 
house is set on fire by a servant over the heads f 
of his master's family, it is time to make the 
last effort to save them and to save themselves. 
On God's footstool there is no such dreadful 
picture as the crowds of thousands of poor men 
and their wives by their sides, trembling on 
their feet before a provost marshal and provost 
guard, who are drawing the names of con- 
ecripts from a wheel which sends the husband 
and father like an unwilling bullock to the 
slaughter pens, while his wife almost a widow 
8tarves amidst her children. In this free land 
Polvphemus caves abound above ground, and 
the only question for whole neighborhoods is 
the question of Ulyses — who shall be last de- 
voured ? Terror has stricken the survivors, 
and the Peace, and State Rights Party alone 
can save them from the catastrophe. 

The Democratic creed respecting negro slav- 
ery for many years has been shamefully 
foolish, timid, and contradictory. We must 
hereafter speak the truth on that subject for 
the sake of our own laborers and our own 
property and safety. Our past leaders have 
left this great duty to go by default, because 
they have been afraid to testify to what they 
believe. We must do it now, or ourselves share 
their guilt. Negro slavery by the whites is a 
thing alien to us, for we have not been forced 
by circumstances to organize a society of 
whites and blacks. If wc had been so situated 
we could not have done otherwise than the 
slaveholder has done, aud he has done some- 
thing formidable for war, since he took up 
arms, as he had before surpassed the world in 
the arts of peace, particularly in agriculture. 



He is the first producer and the first warrior of 
his day, because he has made the most of hia 
means, and organized them according to the 
true system applicable to the case. Where two 
races come in contact by millions, one inferior 
the other superior, there is nothing for it but 
slavery. The presence of the helpless class 
compels the superior to set the tasks and re- 
quire obedience, whether he will or not; or 
else the two races will perish together or ex- 
terminate one another. 

For forty years the protective tariff policy 
of New England has violated the Constitution 
and plundered the country upon the most pal- 
pable pretences, Its encouragement of manu- 
factures is the discouragement of agriculture, 
and trades not protected; its protection of 
American industry is not an advance of wages, 
but an increase of dividends ; its home demand 
for the produce of the country is only a dimi- 
nution of the supply, by forcing the field 
hands into shops; its independence of foreign- 
ers is dependence upon them as borrowers of 
money to build factories, instead of meeting 
them on equal terms as venders of produce; 
its development of the country is an exagger- 
ation of our cities, its stimulation of trade is 
the oppression of commerce. The payment of 
import duties is just as stringent as any other 
tax; its convenience is a negation of princi- 
ple; its uniformity is a sham, a delusion, and 
a snare, for it falls very partially on certain 
pursuits, and on a part of the property of a 
part of the country; its heavy cost of collec- 
tion is hid in the importer's profits; its com- 
plexity enables our government to extort im- 
mensely by fraud, what the despot gets by 
force. And yet upon such, and other fallacies, 
at least a thousand millions of dollars have 
been unfairly extracted from producers of 
every class by the tariff acts of Congress; and 
our access has been barred to the markets of 
the woiAd for the annual crops of grain and 
provisions ; and finally, by plausible appeals 
to morbid sentiments on slavery, New England 
has poisoned the Great West against her best 
friends, her Southern customers, and has in- 
stituted the present tariff war with her blind 
co-operation, a war whose burthens have fallen 
on all the sections except New England, while 
she has reaped a golden harvest. 

The Peace and State Rights party knowing 
that men and money are the sinews of war, 
and that they have been obtained by means of 
the draft and by the issue of immense sums of 
paper money, have in the previous part of the 
Address dwelt upon the injustice and illegality 
of the draft. The banking system is an equally 
false system, however organized. With less 
powers for evil, it has repeatedly desolated the 
whole country, especially the families which 
live by labor, and the agriculturalists, and 
more especially the Northwest. Banking is a 
corporate monopoly of the legitimate credit 
of a community by the privileged few who 



15 



pretend to possess gold and silver, from which 
circle, farmers and laborers are necessarily 
excluded. These monopolists protected from 
personal liability by charters ; borrow gratui- 
tously of the people millions of credit, place 
it in their banks and thence issue it out in 
discounts at high interest to their customers, 
the merchants and traders. A splendid living 
is thus made on little or nothing but the pub- 
lic's gullibility, for there would be just as 
much credit in the country if not a bank 
existed, and it would be cheaper for those 
who wanted it. When a crash comes the 
banker retires rich, but the holders of his 
bank promises to pay must pocket the loss. 
This iniquitous system is the periodical plague 
of the producers, and especially the farmers, 
and it is fearfully raging now under govern- 
ment high pressure stimulation, and should 
be denounced in every Democratic Address 
Kings clip the coin to cheat the people ; Con- 
gress counterfeits it for the same purpose. 

There was an evasion of all these matters 
in the Convention proceedings; a complete 
abandonment of principle in its results, and 
a surrender to the enemies of Peace and State 
Rights. 

The supreme calamity of party infidelity 
has therefore befallen our Democracy. The 
party has been utterly misrepresented by the 
delegates who have thus attempted to bind it 
to the war chariot of a Major General of the 
army. The platform is a war platform, and 
the candidate is Major General McClellan. 

The Peace professions and Peace principles 
which pervade the mass of the people West 
and East are set aside for the purpose of con- 
tinuing the policy and usurpations of Mr. Lin- 
coln. The Convention system has become more 
than ever cornpt and irresponsible, for it has 
enabled the managers who pursue their own 
private interest, to thwart almost universal 
and public interest, and the public sentiments 
of honor and duty, and to frustrate the very 
latest and clearest expressions of their con- 
stituents. Peace, peace, peace, and all that 
comes with it; peace on honorable terms as 
between sensible men alike interested, was 
the demand of the masses; and the business 
of the Convention was to give effect to the 
demand by a declaration of principles on a 
Peace platform, and by placing a Peace candi- 
date upon it. Standing amidst the wide-spread 
ruin of our country, wrought by bad coun- 
sels, and by head-strong passions after suf- 
fering the waste and carnage of three long 
years of sectional war, our people sighed for 
peace, and an immediate settlement With the 
secceding States. This bloody business of 
sending mothers' and fathers' sons from the 
North to slaughter other mothers' and fathers' 
sons at the South, upon their own native soil 
and amid their hearths and altars, has become 
an offence to Heaven itself, which we feel to 
be not only wrong but horrible. Every village 



and homestead have lost their lustiest and 
their brightest youth by disease and battle; 
the chances of return are often one in ten, or 
one in eight, or six, or four; the regiments 
which so bravely bore their colors to the front 
three years ago, and a thousand strong, as they 
thought, to victory and glory, come back not 
as they went, but in staggering and scattered 
ranks, still brave to a fault, but only the sha- 
dow of themselves. Mouring is in every house- 
hold, anguish in every heart, lamentation in 
every part of the deserted and afflicted land. 
The rude coffin that brings back the unrecog- 
nized remains of the once strong and proud 
hero of his mothers and his fathers heart; the 
pompous catafalque of some fallen general 
borne home for splendid burial, the fresh 
graves all over the battlefields wet with blood 
and consecrated to the demon of homicide, 
testify to the mighty madness as well as to 
the terrible cost of this fraternal strife. 

And as usual with mortals in anger, we see 
but halt the truth ; our Southern brethren are 
at least equal sufferers, and the ruder sex of 
both sections suffer scarcely more than the 
gentle. In the month of August, 1864, and at 
the hands of the Chicago Convention we should 
have commenced the beginning of the end of 
such a state of things, repugnant as they are 
to law, religion, and justice, and repulsive as 
they are to all the finer feelings of human 
nature. But the vast majority of the dele- 
gates favoring a contiiruance of the war con- 
trary to the wishes of their constituents, and 
not even masking their design, nominated 
Major General McClellan, whose condemned 
official action resulting in his retirement from 
the army, forms his only claim to the position 
of candidate of the Democracy; but whose 
violations of State Rights and the Rights of 
man are worse than Abraham Lincoln's. It 
may be that cruelty has become a chronic 
disease, and that like the tyrant of Argos, those 
managers have so long dabbled in others blood, 
that they have become frenzied with excite- 
ment. God grant that his royal taste may net 
be adopted by this nation. He looked upon 
the mass as the common herd born to till the 
earth a few brief years for him and then to 
sleep beneath it, or rising at their master's 
call to smite, and be smitten into a festering 
mound of crime and death. Is it possible that 
our tyrant at the North, by name called the 
majority, but in fact, the majority of that 
majority, the caucus of this majority, or an 
irresponsible committee of safety consisting 
of a few bad leaders, have silenced the holy 
service of religion, the veneration for virtue, 
the remembrance of home, the respect for 
human life ? 

The Chicago Convention have done the worst 
thing possible. They have misrepresented the 
people in a matter involving their liberty, 
safety, honor, and institutions. The people 
should condemn their action by repudiating 



16 



their candidate and his vaunted record, and 
the Democratic party should at once begin to 
or2ani7.e themselves upon State Rights and 
Peace doctrines for the future. Acting in that 
great name, this Convention assembled at Cin- 
cinnati, to protest against what has been so 
unwisely and offensively done, make their 
appeal to that final American tribunal, the 
•wisdom and patriotism of the people of the 
sovereign States. We reject the Chicago plat- 
form and candidate: such action is but another 
combination of abolitionism and consolidation; 
it proposes only a change of masters, but not a 
change of system. Like Abraham Lincoln's 
policy, identical with it, the McClellan policy 
is a total overthrow of all principle, right and 
justice; its two legs are the same with which 
the former has bestrode the Constitution, and 
they are, the compulsory union of the States, 
called by both, the unity of this continent; and 
the forcible abolition of negro slavery, or the 
emancipation of four millions of helpless human 
beings not fit to be free, by the sword. Thus, 
we have before us two candidates. but no choice. 
Both the nominees, although hailing from op- 
posite parties, represent the same political 
ideas, and one policy on the subject of the war. 
Why is this? How is this? Or ia it without a 
why or a wherefore, that the States and peo- 
ples of the States of the North and West have 
have thus imposed upon them candidates that 
although coming from different quarters are 
neither of them Democrats, but both federal- 
ists ? The rejection of the State Rights doc- 
trine of 1798 ; of Jefferson's doctrine, was 
logical and inevitable from a Convention which 
nominated McClellan, and proclaim between 
the South and North eternal war. Are this 
Major Geueral and eternal war, the true ideas 
of our Democratic masses East and West? No, 
emphatically no; not at all; but the contrary. 
Who then, and what can account for such a 
nominee and such a creed ? The answer to the 
question is, but one set of men, and one eom- 
mon purpose can account for it. and these are 
the holders of the Railroad monopolies, who 
have kept the Mississippi river closed; or 
rather, vsho shut it by war on the Constitution 
aud Union, as well as on the South, in order to 
compel the transportation at ruinous cost, of 
beef, pork, corn and other produce of the Val- 
ley by force over their rails, instead of its 
natural outlet: the holders of the shipping 
Monopolies which transport the annual crop to 
the markets of the word: the holders of the 
hundreds of millions of untaxable federal 
stocks : the holders of other millions of Atlan- 
tic B ink Stocks, whose capital has been bor- 
rowed by the Treasury to carry on the first 
year's war: the manufacturers of high tariff 
goods in New Englsnd, whose boarding .and 
clothing and lodging, the West would have 
made money by paying for the last thirty 
years, instead of submitting to such highly pro- 



tected monopolies. The Chicago Convention — 
a Democratic convention — was stormed by such 
troops as these, led on by the abolitionists, and 
foreign and domestic capital, the former being 
the worst enemies of the negro race, whom they 
ought to hate worse than they do their mas- 
ters, and the latter, being the worst enemies 
of the Federal constitution, which they never 
did understand, and never wilt appreciate nor 
respect. 

These are the only parties who have any 
candidate for the Presidency now before the 
people, and who have controlled the country 
to its shame and ruin for four years past, and 
who expect to deceive and overpower the peo- 
ple on the farms and in the shops, and at work 
elsewhere in the business of production. It 
is a strife of traders against producers, capi- 
tal against labor, of systems and not of men ; 
it means the change of society as well as gov- 
ernment ; they are after the last dollar and the 
the last man. They both propose a monyed 
and military aristocracy, instead of an equal 
simple and responsible democracy. As we 
love liberty and the free institutions which 
alone can protect it; we must overcome all 
this monstrous doctrine; we must defeat and 
disgrace its leaders; we must reverse it3 posi- 
tion in the country; we must utterly refuse to 
support it at the polls. 

The State Rights party, the Peace party, the 
People's party present this appeal to the masses 
all over the United States from the decision at 
Chicago, and we have set forth the dangers, 
and described the Jeffersonian principles and 
the representative men whereby the party of 
the future must be organized. We have done 
our work in withstanding the first shock of 
prejudice in favor of convention proceedings, 
and it is for the people with their sober second 
thought to say whether in a most overwhel- 
ming case of danger, they will not take juris- 
diction, and enter their decree of reversal. 
Whatever may be the result of the election, 
there can be no doubt of the ultimate result 
if their sovereign will becomes allied to the 
Constitution. 

The war will then be stopped, because waste- 
ful, fruitless, and shameful, but above all, uncon- 
stitutional, the Federal Capitol will be occupied 
by patriotic democrats ; the abolitionists and 
consolidationists, will be scourged from the 
temple which our fathers consecrated to the 
sacred cause of Human Rights. 



Committee on address and resolution con- 
sisted of the following named persons : 

James W. Singleton, I. J. Miller, Josiah 
Snow, Lafe Devlin, Alexander Long, W. C, 
Jewctt, IV, M. Corry. i 

Report of the Committee unanimously adop- 
ted by the Convention, and proceedings or- 
dered to be published. 



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Mill Run F3-1955 



